Indonesia has issued a tsunami warning after a massive earthquake hit waters off its coast today during a visit there by Prime Minister David Cameron.

The quake, with an 8.7 magnitude, hit waters off, Aceh, the same westernmost province that was devastated in 2004 Boxing Day disaster followed by a powerful aftershock four hours later.

The first quake was centred 20 miles beneath the ocean floor around 308 miles from the provincial capital of Banda Aceh.

Panic: People in Banda Aceh scramble to ecsape the city after a tsunami warning was issued. There are fears that a tsunami could be as bad as the one on Boxing Day in 2004

Concern: An Acehnese woman with a child tries to stop a car to go to higher ground after tremors are felt

People there screamed 'God is great!' as they jumped into cars and the backs of motorcycles, clogging streets as they fled to high ground. Buildings shook for four minutes.

They fear a repeat of the 9.1-magnitude quake seven years go that triggered a tsunami that killed 230,000 people. Nearly three quarters lived in Aceh, which is on the Sumatra island.

'I was in the shower on the fifth floor of my hotel,' witness Timbang Pangaribuan today told El Shinta radio from the city of Medan.

'We all ran out. ... We're all standing outside now.'

He said one guest was injured when he jumped from the window of his room.

Mr Cameron is visiting the country’s capital, Jakarta, which is 1,600 miles south-east of the province and on a different island, Java. No tremors have been felt there and the city is unlikely to be hit.

Visit: David Cameron talks to Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono after his arrival at the Presidential Palace in Jakarta today

Strike point: The spot where the earthquake hit and bubbles that show where the tsunami is most likely to hit

The epicentre of the quake and circles showing how a tsunami could move outwards. The map also shows the relative positions of Aceh and Jakarta, where Mr Cameron is

He told President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono: ‘Our thoughts should be with those who are affected.

‘Britain of course stands ready to help if help is required.

‘We will stand with you and your government and your people at this time of worry.

Mr Yudhoyono moved to calm nerves, saying that there appeared to be no serious casualties and local residents had been taken to safety.

He added that ‘as of this time there is no threat of tsunami’ - despite an international warning being issued.

He added: ‘The situation is under control so far. It is a very different situation from 2004 when Aceh was faced with a deadly tsunami.’

The tremor was felt in Singapore, Thailand, Bangladesh, Malaysia and India. A tsunami warning has been issued for cities all along the coast of Sumatra.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii said a tsunami watch was in effect for Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka, Australia, Myanmar, Thailand, the Maldives and other Indian Ocean islands, Malaysia, Pakistan, Somalia, Oman, Iran, Bangladesh, Kenya, South Africa and Singapore.

Fears: Terrified people run out of their homes in Banda Aceh and prepare to evacuate

Shock: Worried residents of Banda Aceh in the streets

There were also reports of the water level dropping in the Thai resort of Phuket - a sign that the sea is drawing back in preparation to launch an enormous wave.

A tsunami watch means there is the potential for a tsunami, not that one is imminent. Since 2004 such warnings are issued after every earthquake in the Pacific.

Indonesia straddles a series of fault lines that makes the vast island nation prone to volcanic and seismic activity.

Last year's devastating tsunami in Japan was triggered by an earthquake with a similar hypocentre depth 20 miles below the surface.

Reuters TVResidents of Aceh, Indonesia, make frantic phone calls after a powerful 8.6-magnitude earthquake was recorded off Indonesia's coast.

By Alastair Jamieson and Ian Johnston, msnbc.com

A tsunami alert was issued for the entire Indian Ocean Wednesday after a powerful 8.6-magnitude earthquake was recorded off Indonesia's coast.

The U.S. Geological Survey said, in its latest revised statement, that the quake was centered about 14 miles beneath the ocean floor and 270 miles from Banda Aceh, the provincial capital of Aceh, at 2:38 p.m. local time (4:38 am. ET).

The quake struck in a similar location and of a similar magnitude to the 9.1-magnitude tremor on Dec. 26, 2004 that triggered a tsunami in the Indian Ocean, killing almost 230,000 people, nearly three

Victor Sardina, a geophysicist on duty at the Hawaii-based center, said a small tsunami wave of 17 cm (6.7 inches) in height had been recorded. "It doesn't look like a major tsunami," Sardina said. "But we are still monitoring as tsunamis come in waves."

Dr Roger Musson, head of seismic hazard at the British Geological Survey in Edinburgh, Scotland, said Wednesday’s quake appeared to have been caused by tectonic plates shifting horizontally, displacing less ocean water than the 2004 quake in which rock plates also moved vertically.

Reports on Twitter said Wednesday's tremors were felt in Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia and India. High-rise apartments and offices on Malaysia's west coast shook for at least a minute.

Fauvan, who like many in this region has a single name, told NBC News that when the quake struck "the buildings shook for three to four minutes - it was very scary."

"I immediately left the building and ran towards higher ground. A lot of peole did the same. There were a lot of people in the street," she said.

She said she had now returned to the hotel. "It is quite good here now" she said, sensing the worst of the quake and tsunami warning had passed.

Evacuation orders were issued for southern Thai provinces of Phuket and Phangnga.

“The province has turned on the warning sirens and asked people all over Phuket island to move to a safe place,” an official from the Phuket Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Center told Reuters by telephone.

The country's National Disaster Prevention Center told NBC News that Phuket airport has been temporarily closed and flights diverted elsewhere.

India issued a tsunami alert for its eastern coast, causing panic and sending people fleeing onto the streets. Hundreds of office workers in the Indian city of Bangalore left their buildings, workers there said.

Aftershocks could cause tsunamisIndonesia's disaster mitigation agency is sending a rescue team to Aceh province, and said electricity had been cut to the area.

Simon Boxall, a U.K. oceanographer, told Sky News that the danger would not necessarily be over if the quake did not produce a tsunami.

“The initial earthquake may not cause a tsunami … [but] there’s no reason why an aftershock, which could still reach up to 8 in magnitude, cannot still cause a tsunami,” he added.

Boxall told Sky that not all offshore quakes produced tsunamis and issuing evacuation orders every time there was one could start to “get very messy.”

NBC News reported that quake has been rated as a '5' on the USGS MMI scale, which measures the physical intensity of an earthquake as felt on the ground. A strength 5 quake is defined as: "Felt inside by most, may not be felt by some outside in non-favorable conditions. Dishes and windows may break and large bells will ring. Vibrations like large train passing close to house."

India's tsunami warning center said waves measuring almost 20 feet might hit along parts of its eastern coast, which was heavily hit by the 2004 tsunami. Smaller waves were expected to hit the remote Andaman and Nicobar islands.

The quake was also felt in Sri Lanka and the southern Thai holiday island of Phuket, both of which were hit hard by the 2004 tsunami.

Indonesia straddles a series of fault lines that makes the vast island nation prone to volcanic and seismic activity.

According to the USGS, the 2004 quake struck about 155 south-southeast of Banda Aceh at a depth of 18.6 miles. Some 227,898 people were killed or missing presumed dead and about 1.7 million were forced out of their homes after the tsunami affected 14 countries in Asia and East Africa.

“This is the third largest earthquake in the world since 1900 and is the largest since the 1964 Prince William Sound, Alaska earthquake,” the USGS said in its summary about the 2004 earthquake.

“The tsunami caused more casualties than any other in recorded history and was recorded nearly world-wide on tide gauges in the Indian, Pacific and Atlantic Oceans,” it added.

The most severe earthquake since 1900 was of 9.5 magnitude and struck Santiago and Concepcion in Chile on May 22, 1960, triggering tidal waves and volcanic eruptions. Some 5,000 people were killed and two million made homeless.

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 09:25:26 GMT | By Agence France-Presse

Indian Ocean on tsunami watch after 8.9 earthquake off Aceh, Indonesia

The quake's magnitude was 8.7, according to a revised measurement from the US Geological Survey, and it struck 431 kilometres (268 miles) off the Indonesian city of Banda Aceh.

Banda Aceh was near the epicentre of a devastating quake in 2004 that triggered a tsunami across the Indian Ocean, which killed 170,000 people.

The latest tremor was felt as far afield as Thailand and southern India, residents said.

Bloomberg News

Indonesian Rupiah, Bonds Drop After Aceh Quake, Tsunami Warnings

By Yudith Ho on April 11, 2012

Indonesia’s rupiah fell to its lowest level in almost three weeks and bonds dropped after an earthquake in Aceh province triggered tsunami warnings.

An 8.7 magnitude earthquake struck off Indonesia’s Aceh province, the U.S. Geological Survey said today, prompting residents to flee to higher ground as Indonesia, India and Thailand issued tsunami warnings. More than 220,000 people were killed in 12 countries after a magnitude-9.1 earthquake off Sumatra island in 2004 unleashed waves that destroyed coastal areas around the Indian Ocean.

“We still don’t know the extent of the damage,” said Putu Andi Wijaya, a Jakarta-based foreign-exchange dealer at PT Bank Rakyat Indonesia. “If the damage is great, it will strain the government’s finances and the budget deficit has been a concern in the market recently.”

The rupiah weakened 0.2 percent to 9,205 per dollar as of 5:08 p.m. in Jakarta, after earlier strengthening as much as 0.4 percent, according to prices from local banks compiled by Bloomberg. It touched 9,208, the weakest level since March 23.

Indonesia’s government bonds fell at home and abroad. The yield on the 7 percent rupiah-denominated notes due May 2022 rose three basis points, or 0.03 percentage point, to 5.97 percent, according to closing prices from the Inter-Dealer Market Association. That’s the highest level since March 16.

The yield on the 4.875 percent dollar bonds maturing in May 2021 increased one basis point to 3.77 percent, according to prices from Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc.

To contact the reporters on this story: Yudith Ho in Singapore at yho35@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Regan at jregan19@bloomberg.net.

BBC News

Large Aceh quake triggers Indian Ocean tsunami warning

An earthquake with an initial magnitude of 8.9 has struck under the sea off Indonesia's northern Aceh province.

The quake triggered a tsunami warning across the Indian Ocean region.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said it was not yet known whether a tsunami had been generated, but advised authorities to "take appropriate action".

The region is regularly hit by earthquakes. The Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004 killed 170,000 people in Aceh.

The US Geological Survey, which documents quakes worldwide, said the Aceh quake was centred 33km (20 miles) under the sea about 495km from Banda Aceh, the provincial capital.

The tsunami centre's warning said quakes of such a magnitude "have the potential to generate a widespread destructive tsunami that can affect coastlines across the entire Indian Ocean basin".

Reuters reports that people in the region were making their way to higher ground.

In Bangkok, a tsunami warning and evacuation order were issued by disaster prevention authorities in the southern Thai provinces of Phuket and Phangnga.

"The province has turned on the warning sirens and asked people all over Phuket island to move to a safe place," an official from the Phuket Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Centre told Reuters by telephone.

An official from the warning centre Phangnga said: "We warn people in every district to evacuate immediately because there is a possibility of a tsunami."

Phuket and Phangnga are provinces popular with tourists and were among those hit by the 2004 Indian Ocena tsunami that killed more than 5,000 people in Thailand.

It is very unfortunate that our scientists and scientific systems/observatories are either not fully fucntional or not in order to understand this earthquake events and we have to depend on US and other advanced countries inspite of sepending lot of public money . Regret .